The Trinamool Congress (TMC) has pulled cricketer-turned-politician and Lok Sabha member Yusuf Pathan out of the multi-party team engaged in Operation Sindoor after complaints to the Centre for adding him without consulting West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee beforehand.
Though the party has not made the official explanation for this withdrawal, insiders in the TMC have stated that leadership considered the choice of Pathan a one-sided action on the part of the Union government. Party insiders state this overrode both the Chief Minister and internal party decision-making channels.
One senior TMC leader, speaking off the record, stated:
"Mamata Banerjee was not apprised about Pathan's addition beforehand. The leadership of the party was also not given a formal notice. Rather, the MP had been called straight up for his passport information. The BJP and the Union government don't have the right to determine who speaks for Trinamool Congress in any multi-party delegation."
TMC's official position, as made by Rajya Sabha MP and parliament party leader Derek O'Brien, is that though the party fully supports all initiatives of the Union government made in the national interest, it thinks issues of international diplomacy should be the sole domain of the central government.
The news comes on the back of the TMC having taken a cautious and restrained line towards Operation Sindoor — the military operation undertaken by Indian armed forces to eliminate terror havens in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has also gone out of her way not to comment on the operation publicly. The party even put out a clarification dissociating itself from comments made by senior MP Saugata Roy, who had made offensive comments regarding the operation last week.
In a formal statement, the TMC stated:
"Let us unequivocally state that the statement of Prof Saugata Roy, MP, is not the view of the All India Trinamool Congress."
The party also cautioned all members not to make any public comments on the delicate national security matter, including on social media, in media interactions, or even at gatherings in public.
The episode has contributed to the already tense Centre-state dynamics, with the TMC reiterating its independence and disapproval of what it perceives as overreach by the Union government in issues related to party representation at the national and international spheres.
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